MOBO with video card / without video card

J

Jamin43

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It looks like there's lots of gamers on this site - but I'm not a gamer - and don't intend to be.

The computer building book I'm reading suggests getting a MOBO with a built in video card on the MOBO as a fine option for 90 % of users who aren't looking into gaming. And that it will be little to no extra cost for the added utility on the MOBO.

* Is this good advice?

* If I were to get a MOBO with a video card as part of the MOBO - can I later bypass it and add an upgraded video card in the future? ( DOes a vid card on the MOBO - keep you from upgrading - or adding one at a later date? )

Thanks
 
Most all aftermarket modern boards that have onboard video have a PCIe X16 video slot too. So you can upgrade to a card.
 
Jamin43 said:
The computer building book I'm reading suggests getting a MOBO with a built in video card on the MOBO as a fine option for 90 % of users who aren't looking into gaming. And that it will be little to no extra cost for the added utility on the MOBO.

* Is this good advice?
Click to expand...

Yes. This is very true. You can also look in the sub $50 price range for graphics cards if you find a motherboard you like without built in video.


* If I were to get a MOBO with a video card as part of the MOBO - can I later bypass it and add an upgraded video card in the future? ( DOes a vid card on the MOBO - keep you from upgrading - or adding one at a later date? )

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yes, you can easily upgrade in most cases.
 
vauxforum said:
sep card anyday. onboard=shit as i have found
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A true gamer. This is not very good information. Most on-board video is more than adequate for almost all computing needs. Most are even powerful enough to run most games - if not as smoothly as one would prefer. Some of the more expensive mainboards have quite powerful on-board video processing.

Personally, all of my systems but one use on-board video. The exception is one that has a mainboard without on-board video. I do internet, accounting, UPS package processing, programming, Photoshop processing on a calibarated monitor, office productivity, network service, a little bit of computer aided design and about anything else you could name other than gaming on my systems. I even enjoy a round of Flight Simulator from time to time and computer golf. Neither one needs more than what on-board video can do. The hard core graphics cards are for hard core 3D games.

If you want to get into running 3D graphics, then you can add a dedicated graphics card as needed.

I second what Zatharus said.
 
Jamin43 said:
It looks like there's lots of gamers on this site - but I'm not a gamer - and don't intend to be.

The computer building book I'm reading suggests getting a MOBO with a built in video card on the MOBO as a fine option for 90 % of users who aren't looking into gaming. And that it will be little to no extra cost for the added utility on the MOBO.

* Is this good advice?

* If I were to get a MOBO with a video card as part of the MOBO - can I later bypass it and add an upgraded video card in the future? ( DOes a vid card on the MOBO - keep you from upgrading - or adding one at a later date? )

Thanks
Click to expand...

i'd want a dedicated card for HD playback, not sure how well onboard video handles 1080P. if you really only intend to use this computer for surfing the web and checking your mail, than no you really don't need one.

if it comes down to, getting a nice mobo w/o dedicated video vs. getting a subpar quality mobo with onboard video. just buy the good one, and find a $30 graphics card... you may even be able to find one with a passive heatsink so it's dead silent.

if you go the onboard video route, i'd consider getting a little extra ram. onboard video tends to use shared ram from your memory.
 
mightymilk said:
i'd want a dedicated card for HD playback, not sure how well onboard video handles 1080P. if you really only intend to use this computer for surfing the web and checking your mail, than no you really don't need one.
Click to expand...

Most recent ATI/nVidia integrated chipsets have accelerated video decoding/processing.

Good point on the extra RAM for an integrated video system. :good:
 
I watch Blu-Ray in 1080p format from time to time with a mainboard and on-board video. There are mainboards designed specifically for use in Home Theater PC's that feature onboard 1080p support and HDMI as well as DVI and VGA outputs. Both ASUS and Gigabyte have several of them so you can really tune in the set of features you might want. I've built several of them. It's really just a matter of choosing the right board for the application.

I don't doubt that the cheapest mainboards on the market may have weak on board video but weak on board video is good enough for the great majority of computing applications. I'm posting right now on a 4 year old computer with on board video driving a spectacular 24" widescreen display at max resolution. It does a super job.
 
Zatharus said:
Yes. This is very true. You can also look in the sub $50 price range for graphics cards if you find a motherboard you like without built in video.


Yes, you can easily upgrade in most cases.
Click to expand...
Could not agree more.

I like to get boards with onboard graphics, just in case the discreet card
goes out. No downtime. But yes, the onboard will run most common applications
and many games.

Every board I've seen with onboard graphics, also has some sort of advanced
slot for graphics card expansion, and when you use that slot, it bypasses
(sometimes manually) the onboard video.
 
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